GABAB receptors are the G-protein coupled receptors for the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, GABA. GABAB receptors were shown to associate with homo-oligomers of auxiliary KCTD8, KCTD12, KCTD12b, and KCTD16 subunits (named after their T1 K(+)-channel tetramerization domain) that regulate G-protein signaling of the receptor. Here we provide evidence that GABAB receptors also associate with hetero-oligomers of KCTD subunits. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments indicate that two-thirds of the KCTD16 proteins in the hippocampus of adult mice associate with KCTD12...

AIM: to evaluate potential efficacy of a new therapeutic approach in posttraumatic stress disorder in comparison with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), a standard treatment approach and controls. METHODS: the study was designed using a randomized controlled trial methodology. Participants were recruited from military servicemen aged between 25 to 50 years who were admitting hospitals of Bushehr, Iran, with the final diagnosis of PTSD. Finally 33 male patients were devided into three subgroups: G1: EMDR; G2: REM Desensitization; and group 3: controls who received no therapy...

We present a description of the Central Sensitivity Syndrome (CSS) and some of its main components such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. We review the changes in pain perception, describing the physiology and pathophysiology of the painful experience from the medulla horn to the CNS. We explain the theory of central sensitization as the basis to the syndrome. We refer to the differences between fibromyalgia and depressive disorders, is spite of their frequent presentation in comorbidity...

The effects of the widely used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants on sleep have been intensively investigated. However, only a few animal studies examined the effect of escitalopram, the more potent S-enantiomer of citalopram, and conclusions of these studies on sleep architecture are limited due to the experimental design. Here, we investigate the acute (2 and 10 mg/kg, i.p. injected at the beginning of the passive phase) or chronic (10 mg/kg/day for 21 days, by osmotic minipumps) effects of escitalopram on the sleep and quantitative electroencephalogram (EEG) of Wistar rats...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the in vitro microhardness of enamel treated with a 10% carbamide peroxide agent and two desensitizing dentifrices at different bleaching times. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 10% carbamide peroxide bleaching agent was evaluated (Rembrandt 10%) (REM). A placebo agent was used as a control group (PLA). The bleaching and the placebo agents were applied to human enamel dental fragments for 8 hours per day, followed by immersion for 5 minutes in a slurry solution of desensitizing dentifrices: Sensodyne (S) or Sensodyne Fluor (SF)...

The serotoninergic system is involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness, its activity being at maximum during the awake state and minimum during sleep. In particular, the production of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep depends on the decrease of serotoninergic tone in brain stem structures. Thus, serotoninergic compounds which increase this tone (such as antidepressants) induce inhibition of REM sleep. Depression is associated with a functional decrease of serotoninergic neurotransmission and with specific alterations of sleep, notably insomnia...

Numerous studies have provided evidence for the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including recent studies showing it to be more efficient than therapist-directed flooding. But few theoretical explanations of how EMDR might work have been offered. Shapiro, in her original description of EMDR, proposed that its directed eye movements mimic the saccades of rapid eye movement sleep (REM), but provided no clear explanation of how such mimicry might lead to clinical improvement...

We studied the effect of sleep excess on the sleep-wakefulness pattern of rats. Subarachnoid infusion of prostaglandin D2 or the adenosine A2a receptor agonist CGS21680 effectively induced slow wave sleep (SWS) for the first 12 h of the night-time period, whereas they did not induce sleep during the following 24 h of infusion. An increase in the amount of wakefulness was seen during the last 12 h of prostaglandin D2 infusion. The amounts of wakefulness strongly increased during the following 36-h recovery period...

BACKGROUND: Nicotinic receptor dysfunction is a possible mechanism of the abnormal sensory gating observed in schizophrenia with the P50 auditory event-related potential. Although nicotinic receptors normally desensitize after activation by acetylcholine or nicotine, pathologically increased desensitization might cause receptor dysfunction in schizophrenia. To examine this possibility, central cholinergic neuronal activity was diminished by allowing schizophrenic patients to sleep briefly, after which they experienced a transient period of normal P50 gating, consistent with receptor resensitization during the absence of cholinergic stimulation...

Previous studies showed that chronic deprivation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep had the same behavioral effects as antidepressant drugs in helpless rats. Since long-term treatment with antidepressants is known to affect central serotoninergic neurotransmission, we investigated whether REM sleep deprivation also exerts an influence on the activity of serotoninergic neurons within the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) in rats. REM sleep deprivation was performed using the platform technique. Recording of serotoninergic neurons in the DRN revealed no difference in the basal firing rate, but a reduced inhibitory response to the selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake blockers cericlamine and citalopram after repeated but not acute REM sleep deprivation...

Eye movement desensitization is a new and effective procedure for post-traumatic stress disorder that requires explanation. Reverse learning is a model developed in artificial neural networks as a theoretical explanation of rapid-eye-movement sleep. It demonstrates that an overloaded node within a network can be consolidated with a series of non-specific activations. Rapid-eye-movement sleep is suspected to have a memory consolidation function. Ponto-geniculo-occipital spikes, which occur in rapid-eye-movement sleep, are a candidate for such activations in the real brain...

Recently, we proposed that the coupling of cognitive activation and diminished arousal during REM sleep may have a mood regulating effect. Conversely, increased arousal during REM sleep may be associated with mood dysregulation. In this paper, the desensitization model is described, and data are presented on the association between motor activity during REM sleep, wakefulness and severity of depression. Motor activity sleep EEG data and two measures of depressive severity (BDI and HRSD) were obtained from 23 depressed patients...

Recent years have seen considerable interest in rapid eye movement desensitization (REMD), a novel procedure for the treatment of traumatic memories and related conditions. REM is usually administered as a component of a broader therapeutic procedure, now termed eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). On the basis of previous and largely uncontrolled work, it is not clear to what degree therapeutic gains can be attributed exclusively to REMD. Following exposure to a contrived trauma, Ss were allocated to one of three conditions: REMD; slow eye movement desensitization (SEMD); and stationary-imagery (SI; i...

Diminished suppression of the P50 response to repeated auditory stimuli is one example of a deficit in elementary sensory processing in schizophrenia. Normal subjects suppress the response to the second of two paired auditory stimuli. Although normal suppression is occasionally observed in schizophrenic patients, it generally disappears with subsequent testing. We have previously reported that slow wave sleep (SWS) transiently normalized suppression in schizophrenic patients and that the degree of suppression was positively correlated with the depth of SWS attained...

In many dorsolateral pontine neurons, auditory stimulation produces an initial excitation followed by a sustained inhibition. We now report that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation, for periods of from 22-48 h, reduced this auditory evoked inhibition of unit discharge. Inhibition returned to baseline levels after recovery REM sleep. Prior work indicates that the auditory evoked inhibition seen in noradrenergic cells in this region is partially mediated by norepinephrine. We hypothesize that the reduction in inhibition that we see is a consequence of either downregulation/desensitization of norepinephrine receptors or reduced norepinephrine release resulting from REM sleep deprivation...